Put an IDE drive in an AHCI system

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

abel98

Reputable
Mar 5, 2014
44
0
4,560
I'm building a computer and will put my drives in AHCI mode before installing windows. However, I have a 200GB drive (HDD) in my old pc which is IDE. I'd like to transfer the files from that drive to my new system, how do I do it? Can I just put it temporarily in my new system and start windows and use Explorer to copy over the files, or won't that work because of the different drive settings?
 
Solution
P
Your mobo has no IDE port on it, so you can't connect the old IDE HDD to it directly. Since you only want to transfer files off the old HDD (once, I presume) you could go the simple (but slightly slow) way. Buy an adapter that lets you plug it into any IDE HDD and connect that to a USB2 port of the computer. (In fact, most such adapters these days handle both SATA and IDE units, but not at the same time). Price is about $20. After your new system is running with its OS installed, you can connect the HDD via a USB port and copy data over, then disconnect.

There are two minor downsides to this. One is that the adapter plus HDD is bare, not very well protected. So this is not a good permanent way to mount a HDD, but for a temporary...
Sort by date Sort by votes
P

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Oct 19, 2006
11,275
1,031
69,340
Your mobo has no IDE port on it, so you can't connect the old IDE HDD to it directly. Since you only want to transfer files off the old HDD (once, I presume) you could go the simple (but slightly slow) way. Buy an adapter that lets you plug it into any IDE HDD and connect that to a USB2 port of the computer. (In fact, most such adapters these days handle both SATA and IDE units, but not at the same time). Price is about $20. After your new system is running with its OS installed, you can connect the HDD via a USB port and copy data over, then disconnect.

There are two minor downsides to this. One is that the adapter plus HDD is bare, not very well protected. So this is not a good permanent way to mount a HDD, but for a temporary copying job it is just fine. The other is speed. The USB2 interface moves data much more slowly that an internally-mounted HDD interface (either IDE or SATA), but for a one-tome job all that requires is patience. You could get faster with a USB3 adapter (harder to find and more expensive), but why bother?

Another option, more expensive, is to buy an external drive enclosure that accepts an IDE HDD inside, and convert your old HDD into an external drive. You'd also have to choose the interface from enclosure to computer - eSATA, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), or USB3 (USB2 is slower!), depending on what ports are available from your mobo to connect to. However, would a 200 GB external drive that is already old be any real use to you?

By the way, your original concern is NOT a problem. You plan to "put my drives in AHCI mode". This is based on a special "work-around" feature of MANY mobo BIOS's designed originally for use with new SATA drives and Windows XP, which did not know how to use them. Anyone using a Windows after XP certainly should set the SATA Port Mode to AHCI. But the important point is this: this feature and setting applies ONLY to the SATA ports of your mobo. There is no such setting for IDE ports (IF you had one!), and no such thing for HDD's in external enclosures or connected via adapters to USB ports, etc.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom